The Exonerated
is a 90 minute stage play revolving around the stories of six former
Death Row prisoners who were released from prison after their
convictions were reversed. The play briefly tells in narrative
fashion each person’s story of what she or he was falsely
accused of, how she or he was wrongly convicted, and his or her
eventual exoneration.

The play is staged with a spartan set of 10 chairs lined
up across the stage. There is a lectern in front of each chair that
has a copy of the script. There is no physical movement since the
actors remain seated throughout the play. The acting is in the voice
inflections and accents of the performers as they recite dialogue
based on court transcripts and interviews related to the cases of the
five men and one women:

· Kerry
Max Cook, convicted in 1978 of murdering a woman acquaintance. He was
wrongly imprisoned in Texas for 22 years.

· Robert
Earl Hayes, convicted in 1991 of murdering and raping a co-worker. He
was wrongly imprisoned in Florida for six years.

· Delbert
Tibbs, convicted in 1974 of murdering a man and raping his companion.
He was wrongly imprisoned in Florida for three years.

· Sonia
Jacobs, convicted in 1976 of murdering two policemen. She was wrongly
imprisoned in Florida for 16 years.

· Gary
Gauger, convicted in 1993 of murdering his mother and father. He was
wrongly imprisoned in Illinois for three years.

· David
Keaton, convicted in 1971 of murder. He was wrongly imprisoned in
Florida for two years.

Four other actors,
two men and two women, wear multiple hats by reciting dialogue of
judges, prosecutors, and defense lawyers in the cases, as well as
several other people.

The Exonerated
is touring the country as of the spring of 2004. The Moore Theater in
Seattle was nearly sold out when I saw the play in January 2004.
Pulling in a large audience willing to pay over $50 a ticket requires
marquee performers, and during the plays six day run in Seattle,
veteran actors Brian Dennehy and Lynn Redgrave played Gary Gauger and
Sonia Jacobs, respectively. An assortment of “name”
performers, including Richard Dreyfus, Amanda Plummer, Gabriel Bryne,
Marlo Thomas, and Vincent D’Onofrio have played parts in the
play in different cities.

I
was somewhat disappointed with The Exonerated.
Perhaps reflecting that its writers are of the MTV generation –
it has the feel of watching a music video as it jumps from one person
to another every few minutes (or less). I suppose that is great if
you have the attention span of a two year-old, but I thought it was
distracting. So much so that I found myself thinking of ways the play
could have been designed to be more dramatic and less “hip.”
I was also taken aback by the way the play is staged “on the
cheap.” Go to any high school play in the country and you are
likely to see significantly higher production values than are
incorporated into The Exonerated.

The Exonerated
does however, provide a reason for the snob faction of its audience
to indignantly exclaim after a night at the theater - “Oh my,
isn’t what happened to those people just terrible!” –
and the next day go on with their life as if the night before they
had been bothered by a bout of indigestion.

Based
on the adage that there is no such thing as bad publicity, The
Exonerated has been good for
helping to put a spotlight on several serious miscarriages of
justice. However it owes that press coverage to the “name-brand”
actors in the cast and not its subject matter or production values.
How is that known? The release of an innocent person from prison
rarely merits more than a paragraph in newspapers outside of the city
or town affected. However to have Brian Dennehy portray
Gary Gauger, who was released from prison eight years ago,
and Lynn Redgrave portray
Sonia Jacobs, who was released 12 years ago,
merited almost 1-1/2 pages of coverage in The Seattle Times (Jan. 11,
2004, pgs K1, K4; and, Jan. 15, 2004, C3). That could be more
coverage than the paper devoted in total to reports about the 76
people exonerated or pardoned in the U.S. in 2003 (See, The Innocents
Database at, http://forejustice.org/search_idb.htm).

In
spite of its deficiencies, The Exonerated
is worth seeing at least once by anyone with a smidgen of social
consciousness, but not at the $52 dollars I paid for a ticket in
the balcony. In a few years
community, high school, and college theater groups, typically
charging $5-$15 dollars a ticket for a seat that is often times only
yards from the performers, will begin staging The
Exonerated. The actors in
those productions will be just as effective as the “name”
performers in the off-Broadway touring version – and probably
more so because they will better project to the audience that will be
closer to the stage.

Waiting
for a local production of The Exonerated
is a viable option for two reasons: there is nothing about the play
that makes it a must see right now (unless you want to see a big name
performer read a script); and you can take your savings (up to $80
for two people) and have your own Wrongful Conviction Movie Fest –
including popcorn and drink refreshments! There are over 70 movies
related to wrongful convictions that you can choose from listed in
The Innocents Bibliography at:
http://forejustice.org/biblio/bibliography.htm.
Many of those movies are based on actual cases, and can typically be
rented at video locations where they are available for $3 or less, or
for free from your local library. Any one of those movies could
provide as much or more information than The Exonerated
about the process by which an innocent person is wrongly convicted,
what the person goes through, and how they are eventually exonerated.
It is also worth keeping in mind that each
of these dramatically powerful and informative movies starring “name”
performers has been seen by many times
more people than will see a theater performance of The
Exonerated in a hundred years.

The following are
brief summaries of nine movies related to wrongful convictions you
might want to consider seeing, if you haven’t already.

·
In the Blink of
an Eye tells the tragic story
of Sonia Jacobs and Jesse Tafero who were wrongly convicted of the
1976 murder of two policemen and sentenced to death. The 1996 movie
stars Mimi Rogers as Sonia Jacobs, and effectively portrays the
heroic efforts of her childhood friend, Micki Dickoff, a documentary
film maker, who believed in her innocence and worked for years
towards her exoneration.

·
Call Northside
777 tells the compelling story
of Joseph Majczek, who was convicted of murdering a Chicago policeman
in 1933 and sentenced to life in prison. The 1948 movie stars Jimmy
Stewart as the enterprising reporter who beat the bushes for proof of
Majczek’s innocence after responding to a classified ad by
Majczek's mother seeking help. His mother had worked for years
scrubbing floors to save $5,000 (a significant amount in the 1940s)
to offer as a reward for information that would exonerate her son.

·
The Hurricane
tells the moving story of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter and
his co-defendant, John Artis, who were wrongly convicted twice
of murdering three people. The 1999 movie stars Denzel Washington
(nominated for the Oscar’s Best Actor award) and shows how
important the efforts of three Canadians, including a teenager, were
to the eventual exoneration of the two men.

·
Dangerous
Evidence: The Lori Jackson Story,
tells the inspiring story of activist lawyer Lori Jackson’s
efforts to aid a US Marine Corp Battalion's only African American
corporal who she believed was wrongly convicted of raping a white
officer's wife. The 1999 movie stars Lynn Whitfield.

·
The Thin Blue
Lie tells of the doggedly
determined effort of Philadelphia Inquirer
reporter Jonathan Neumann to investigate corruption in the
Philadelphia Police Department. As he discovered, their untoward
actions included framing innocent people, one of whom was on death
row for causing five arson related deaths. Neumann won a Pulitzer
Prize for the reporting this movie is based on. The 2000 movie stars
Rob Morrow, Randy Quaid and Paul Sorvino. See the review of The
Thin Blue Lie in
Justice:Denied Issue
23.

·
In The Name of
the Father tells the story of
four Irishmen known as the Guildford Four, who were framed by the
police for an IRA bombing that killed five people in a Guildford,
England pub. The 1994 movie stars Daniel Day Lewis as Gerry Conlon,
and Emma Thompson as Gareth Peirce, the lawyer who relentlessly
searched for years to finding exonerating evidence. See the review of
the movie in Justice Denied,
Vol. 2, No. 4, that can be viewed at,
http://www.justicedenied.org/inthenameofthefather.htm.

·
A Cry in the
Dark tells the double tragedy
that befell the Chamberlain family in Australia. Lindy Chamberlain
was wrongly convicted of murdering her young daughter, who was
actually dragged away by a dingo during a camping trip. The 1988
movie stars Meryl Streep and Sam Neill.

·
Ten Rillington
Place tells the too impossible
not to be true story of Timothy Evans. In 1949 Evans was charged with
the gruesome slaying of his wife and babyafter being induced by police to
falsely confess to the murders. Evans was convicted, and then hanged
in March 1950. However after his executionit
was discovered the actual killer had continued his murder spree.Timothy Evan’s execution
influenced many people in the U.K. to recognize a fatal flaw with
capital punishment is the inability to correct an innocent person’s
execution. The 1970 movie stars Richard Attenborough.

·
The Wrong Man
tells of the devastating effect on nightclub musician “Manny”
Balestro and his wife when he was wrongly accused of robbing an
insurance office in 1954. Alfred Hitchcock directed this movie that
is based on an account published in Life magazine. The 1956 movie
stars Henry Fonda, Vera Miles and Anthony Quayle.

After
watching a half-dozen movies about wrongful convictions you should
have money left over from what tickets to the touring version of The
Exonerated would have cost. To
come out even with the cost of the play’s tickets, you could do
the good deed of donating the leftover money to one or more of the
cash strapped grassroots organizations concerned with various aspects
of wrongful convictions. Then you can check out The
Exonerated if it is locally
produced in your community.